Ego, What is Ego? Options

As a person, I have a big ego. I want to win at all costs. I want this and that. I simply want to have it my way. I want the cake and the icing too. I am spoiled and always want to take more than I give back. Is this an example of an Ego?

My ego boost me to gain riches, health, love and many other conquests.
My ego also make new enemies, destroy and corrupt various aspects of me and my environment consciously and subconsciously.

What is EGO? What does this word means?
How do you define it? How do you keep it your slave instead of it enslaving you?
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thesis: ego is a natural urge for survival of a group, it has no funtion in solitude, and is not un-installable but is de-selectable, and has nothing to do with pride

note: this is the mental definition, if you will, of the ego, and not about whether it needs to be turned off or not, for "we must define before we can ever understand"; these are just my observations, nothing here is proven, footnoted or even claimed to be lucid; ymmv; comments and additions welcome

1) a dog likes to have its tummy rubbed, why?

a pack of dogs in the woods and one of them has brought back meat - the food provider will lay down and the other dogs give the belly rub

this 'belly rub' concept is a pack instinct and is required for working and living within a pack mentality

a single dog in the woods does not exhibit this behavior

what is your dog saying when it asks for a belly rub?

if you never give your dog a belly rub, will it die?

2) we also have this 'belly rub' desire or instinct for group living - we call it the ego

have you ever seen anybody rub their own full belly after a meal? might as well hang a sign on it

we are not that far away from the animal from which we were made - the instincts which drove that animal are still alive and well within us

half of most folk's life interaction is group (the rest is sleep apparently), and all of the media and 99% of all advertising is 'belly rub' based (except some intellectual and comedy bits here and there), smiling 'this makes me happy, buy it and it will make you happy too, and show a pic of a dog getting the belly rubbed so you unconsciously want yours rubbed too)

the ego can be turned off (or at least ignored) if one knows where to find it - it is a basic unconscious/borderline/conscious survival instinct for group life

you could be a hermit and avoid group contact totally, or you could imagine yourself otherkin or alien or dead or whatever and thus disconnect from the group even while being in the middle of it

once aware of the ego, there is an immediate defense available - society calls it being antisocial, and i'd bet a whole lot of those on here have it - it seems to be a visible testament to placement on the evolutionary ladder

3) pride has nothing to do with the ego

tom hanks in castaway when he has made fire feels great pride when he succeeds in making fire - pride, but without group to be appreciated by, then produces no ego, or does it - notice how he behaves as if there were a group though - is ego the instinct or the response

if you did something really great in the woods and felt great pride for or about what you were able to do, and there was nobody around for miles and miles, and you were aware of exactly what the ego is, could you recognise and turn off the ego desire and response?

enjoy,

e.

This post has been edited by esoterica: Nov 27 2006, 09:42 AM